Building A Paid Community: Patreon vs. Mighty Networks
Episode 468: Show Notes
In this episode, Emylee and Abagail get into the topic of building a community that you get paid to run, talking about two of the more popular options in the creator space – Patreon and Mighty Networks. We see musicians, comedians, artists, podcasters, and the like use these platforms to create a network. As you all know, Emylee is always looking toward the next thing and has taken the leap to start her online community for those interested in building clay earring businesses, so she has done some research, signed up (and canceled) subscriptions, and figured out the details so you don’t have to!
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We know you love your Facebook group, but there are serious limitations to it, such as you can’t get paid for it. However, migrating from one platform to another can be a nasty business since humans are creatures of habit who often resist new paths. You’ve got to have pretty solid reasons for wanting to migrate, and Emylee and Abagail break it all down for you in this episode. Before you get started on a paid community, be sure to tune in for this episode!
What We Mean By “Paid Community” and Why We Have Not Done It
The idea of a paid community, and specifically paying a third-party source to host that community, has been on our minds for years. We debated moving away from Facebook groups to having a paid group aspect or whatever other options there are for creating a better experience for our students within Boss Project. But we have never actually made a final decision about it for various reasons. There are the obstacles of moving tens of thousands of people over to another platform and getting them to develop new habits. Facebook is such a well-known and free platform that just makes it really convenient for people to engage, and asking them to shift to something completely new – that costs them money – can be quite a big ask.
Why Emylee Considered Patreon or Mighty Networks In the First Place
Emylee’s gut reaction was to go with what she already knew, which was Facebook, Teachable, or MemberSpace (where we host the membership aspect of the Creative Template Shop) but then she grabbed the opportunity to learn more about the alternatives out there. With Boss Project being our main gig, we don’t want to take chances, but with her side hustle, she felt like she had the space to experiment. She has come to a place where she is willing to pay for software and tools that will make her more money, and she is no longer relying on all the freebies to cut costs. However, she always does thorough research before making a decision. At the start of the quarantine, she decided to host a few clay classes: One was free, one was $10 and the other was $15. She used Instagram Live and Zoom. At the time, she also migrated from Squarespace to Shopify, so people could no longer access the replays of the classes, and started asking for them. They also asked her a bunch of other questions related to making clay earrings and she began toying with the idea of getting paid to answer all these questions!
What’s the Deal With Patreon?
Emylee has several memberships on Patreon and, as someone who is learning, she loves it! It seemed simple and straightforward to get started, so she planned a proof of concept exercise. She asked those who had done her clay course whether they would be interested in continuing to learn from her and pay on a monthly basis and asked them to supply their email addresses. She got a total of about 150 people who were potentially interested in paying for something like it and went about setting up Patreon. While it was not a game-changer right away, it grew faster than she expected, and within three weeks she had over 100 people. She started investigating Patreon fees and realized that they charge a pretty steep percentage, and, on top of that, identified certain things that she felt were missing from the platform. Talking to each other as a community, for example, lacked certain functionalities. Whenever you want to add anything else to Patreon, it is through a third-party app, things like Crowdcast, Discourse, or Discord, and they cost extra money – some up to $200 a month! Patreon doesn’t charge you on the front-end but they take it out of your earnings so you don’t “see” the money. The percentage also increased according to the number of people you have! She was not happy with the setup and started looking at other options.
The Fee Structure of Patreon Compared to Mighty Networks
You can log onto Patreon, make an account for free, and start charging for your membership. But as soon as someone pays you, you start paying back to Patreon. The first tier is 5% of your income plus processing fees, and whatever you want to sell can just be one price. If you are making $500 a month from the platform, regardless of how many members you have, it would cost you about $25 plus credit card processing fees. The next tier is 8% for up to $2500 a month, plus your processing fees, and then you are bumped up to 12% for anything over that. And that amounts to $300 (minimum) a month. When you get more members, they make more money from you. Just to bring it into perspective: High-end course software is usually around $100 for the business tier and the enterprise tier might be $200. So, we think the pricing in Patreon is just bananas! Mighty Networks is different from Patreon in that they are very similar to a Facebook group: There is a scrolling feed, you can like, comment, save, follow, and as a member, you can also post whereas on Patreon only the creator can make posts. So, you have all the functionality of a Facebook group with the added benefit that you can charge for it. They have a free plan which still allows you to charge your members for the community. Also, when a person cancels, they are automatically removed from the network. The next tier is a 5% subscription fee after processing, which is far less than Patreon. If you move up to their next plan, you can go up to $23 a month, but your percentage subscription fee lowers to 3%. If you are making $1000 a month, it will cost you $30 in fees plus your $23 fee for Might Networks, which is $53 a month to bring in $1000. The same would cost you $80 on Patreon. At the highest tier, you only pay a 2% subscription fee. If you bring in $2500, it will cost you a total of $131 whereas the same would cost you $300 on Patreon.
Your Target Market Matters and Other Pros and Cons
While we have proven that Mighty Networks is significantly cheaper, you also have to consider your target market. If your target audience is the podcast junkie, Patreon is going to be better for you since the podcast community has taken over this platform. It works really well because you can stream your podcast straight to Patreon. The bottom line is: Know your audience. If you are more focused on B2C and you are an entertainer, the average consumer might be more interested in Patreon because they also know the platform. Mighty Networks is a lesser-known one, so you might have more resistance since people often won’t be connected to any other network on the platform. But what Mighty Networks has that Patreon does not, on their 2% and 3% plans, they allow you to use your own domain for your membership. With Mighty Networks, you can thus retarget people who visit the site but don’t sign up and those who already are members, and see specific analytics about blogs and links posted. This knowledge is super crucial! Also, we suspect that you also don’t own your content on Patreon. If you just want to charge for a Facebook group-like experience without courses, Mighty Networks is for you. If you have a giant Facebook community like us, you will know that you can’t target them because you don’t necessarily have their emails whereas this platform allows you to do all that, even if you don’t charge them for membership.
When It Is And Is Not Worth Migrating
Using Mighty Networks for a free community might not be worth the effort it takes to successfully migrate people over from Facebook. People have strong habits and, unlike Facebook which they might use daily, they are unlikely to be as engaged on Mighty Networks simply because the platform is new and “off the beaten path”. That’s why it is not something we would consider doing for Boss Project right now – the stakes are too high. Emylee took the leap because she still had only a small number of followers but there is no reason to migrate when what you are doing is working for you. Of course, when you are starting from scratch, go for it – you have little to lose. Emylee lost none of her followers when she migrated: over 90% of her people moved within the first 24 hours. The crazy thing was, to move across, each of her members first had to cancel their Patreon accounts and join Mighty Networks, add their credit card details and everything else again, and they still happily did that, and many even upgraded their membership to business! The other cool thing that Might Networks has is an ambassador program, so if people refer others to your network, they get rewarded. You can also put in your physical location so that you can see the other members who are in your area. Just like with Facebook, you can group chat or talk one-on-one, and then you can also do events. The app is easy to navigate and content easy to find, so what’s not to love?
Quote This
Honestly, there are very few things we think are worth migrating from if they are actively working for you. The bottom line is: know your audience.
Highlights
What We Mean By “Paid “Community” and Why We Have Not Done It. [0:04:35.1]
Why Emylee Considered Patreon or Mighty Networks In the First Place. [0:06:57.1]
What’s the Deal With Patreon? [0:11:56.1]
The Fee Structure of Patreon Compared to Mighty Networks. [0:19:04.1]
Your Target Market Matters and Other Pros and Cons. [0:30:14.1]
When It Is And Is Not Worth Migrating. [0:35:53.1]
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Abagail & Emylee
The Strategy Hour Podcast
We help overwhelmed and creative entrepreneurs break down their Oprah-sized dreams to create a functioning command center to tame the chaos of their business. Basically, we think you’re totally bomb diggity, we’re about to uplevel the shiz out of your business.
KEY TOPICS
Patreon, Mighty Networks, Facebook Groups, Paid Community, Platforms, Migration, Fee Structures, Subscriptions
